His first appearance on the show was in the 4th season premiere in 1972, where he counts blocks in a sketch with Bert and Ernie.

Once he reaches the total number of items he is counting, thunderstorms roll (even indoors or on sunny days) while he laughs his iconic "Ah-Ah-Ah!"

The von Count family includes an unnamed brother and mother as well as an Uncle Uno and grandparents.

For example, in episode 0974, he was counting at midnight, disturbing others, and as his punishment, the Amazing Mumford used magic to detach his cloud, therefore taking his thunder and lightning away until he understood.

This episode was inspired by the 1978 Sesame Street bedtime storybook titled "Who Stole the Count's Thunder?".

Despite the fact that the Count is now friendly and non-threatening, in his earliest appearances from 1972 to 1975, he showed a much more villainous nature.

and used hypnotic powers to temporarily stun people with a wave of his hands (although he sometimes did this without shouting anything, and even did it for no reason, occasionally).

", while thunder and lightning flashed in moody colors, and then he would exit the scene, once again, holding his cape over his face.

This aspect of the Count's personality, however, was abruptly ended in 1975 out of concern that it might frighten younger viewers, and this practice was changed, as he became friendlier, did not have hypnotic powers, did not enter or exit the scene holding his cape over his face, and interacted more pleasantly with the characters (both live actors and Muppets).

The Count made an appearance in the film The Muppets Take Manhattan at Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy's wedding, then in the Sesame Street movies Follow That Bird (1985) as a supporting character and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999) as a minor character.

[6] In Season 33, the Count was given a daily segment on Sesame Street, simply called The Number of the Day.

After Nelson's death in 2012, Vogel took over voicing and puppeteering the Count full time the following year.

However, instead of the Count's regular head, this doll's head featured Al Franken on one side and Norm Coleman on the other, and was called "Count von Re-Count"—referring to the extraordinarily prolonged recount and legal battle surrounding the 2008 U.S. Senate election between the two men.

[9] Australian rugby league football international Anthony Minichiello has been nicknamed "the Count" due to his striking resemblance to the character.

[10] During the 2020 United States presidential election, which required a ballot-counting period of four days before Joe Biden was declared the winner, the Count was featured in many internet memes and social media posts, such as playful wishes that he could be called in to assist the tabulation and the insistence that President Donald Trump's demand to "Stop the Count" was hopeless against the Sesame Street character.